August 24, 2013: The Bloomington Road bridge over Big Creek in Linn County is part of the Lincoln Highway loop route through Marion.
An 85-year-old bridge in Linn County is too young to have been a part of the Lincoln Highway, and that may have contributed to its doom.
The Parker through truss bridge is east of Marion on Bloomington Road, a diagonal that is still gravel today. The bridge was built in 1925, but the Lincoln Highway was removed from Marion on Oct. 1, 1921*, when Mount Vernon Road was paved. The work on that was far enough ahead that when the state highway system was created in 1920, and the Lincoln Highway was numbered IA 6, the route into Marion became IA 94 instead. Although Bloomington Road remained part of the state highway system until 1961 after very briefly being part of IA 150, it was never paved.
Linn County did consider the bridge for preservation in 2010 (PDF), but a report made the same distinction I did above. It’s “not a Lincoln Highway-era bridge,” the report said, but “it can probably be stated that this historic-age bridge is more in keeping with the historic landscape … than a modern bridge.”
The bridge has serious/poor/deficient construction ratings and didn’t make the grade for preservation, and Linn County in October signed an agreement to get the bridge replaced next year.
*Date of completion from “The Seedling Mile” PDF by the Iowa DOT. Given that Marion lost the county seat in November 1919, and the first state map already used Mount Vernon Road, a case can be made that the Lincoln was really moved away earlier. However, Mount Vernon Road would have been un-travel-able during construction, so 10/1/21 is as good a date as any.